Roland Hayes

Name: Roland Hayes

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Grade: 12th

School: Bayview High School

Hobbies and Interests: Politics, Student Council, apocalypse fiction, popular culture

Appearance: Roland somewhat fits the profile of the “scary black man”, at six feet and 250 pounds. He’s stocky and imposing, with a bit of padding all over his body. Most of the time he prefers to wear concealing clothing like jeans and sweatshirts. Usually he can be found wearing his favorite hoodie, which is big, and black, with spacious waist pockets and the words “REJECT FALSE ICONS” hand-embroidered in the back. His face is square and thick, with a broad jaw, wide nostrils, and dull brown eyes. He shaves and washes his face regularly, leaving little to obscure his dark complexion. His hair, on the other hand, is tangled into freeform dreadlocks, pushed out of his eyes, but otherwise falling wherever. In short, he looks like an underground teenage rebel, which he doesn’t necessarily deny.

Biography: Roland Hayes was born in Edmonton Alberta to Michael and Roberta Hayes. Michael, being heavily into the works of Stephen King at the time, named his son after the main character of King’s Dark Tower series. Shortly after he was born, Roberta got pregnant with his sister, Lillian, who was born eleven months after him.

Shortly afterwards, Roberta was recognized for her skills in the field of biochemistry and was appointed to teach the subject at the University of Minnesota, leaving Roland and Lillian to grow up as American citizens, and for the most part, they adapted.

While Roland and Lillian went to public school like most of the local kids, his parents took extra steps to ensure that their kids were properly educated. Roland in particular took to education well, learning to read at the age of three and never really stopping. Elementary school passed without many problems, if you exclude his slowness at socializing. He stuck with a handful of people he knew and trusted for his entire time at elementary school, and repeated the process through middle school.

Three things happened in his early high school years that would form the core of his current personality. Though an excellent student, Roland was plagued by behavioral issues, arguing with his teachers and sulking several times. To solve this problem, his parents and psychiatrist prescribed Celexa brand anti-depressants in order to keep him calm. And it works, at least when he remembers to take his medicine.

Secondly, he stumbled upon the blogosphere for the first time, and was hooked almost immediately. He had never read anything about politics that was so interesting and clear before, and at first, he had trouble understanding why people wouldn’t read them. Sure there was the occasional insult and rant, but he had thick skin, he could take it. Once he read more, he noticed that the blogs conflicted with and sometimes even attacked each other. He had to know who was right. And so he started researching the field on his own time, eventually sharing his findings with those students who would care to listen by distributing pamphlets which read like For Dummies-esque briefings on foreign and local political environments, movements, and personalities.

Thirdly, as he was browsing the internet several months later, he stumbled upon footage of Cody Jenson raping and murdering Madelaine Shirohara. Until that point, Roland had not so much as glanced at anything gory from any medium, and the experience was shocking, to say the least. He couldn’t get the image out of his head; he had to find out where it had come from, and so he learned about Survival of the Fittest. He didn’t discover that the children on the show were real that time (that would come next summer, when V2 aired), but he was disgusted nonetheless, and viewed it as the nadir of the current trend of tasteless reality television. While not exactly a political issue, cleaning out the crap from American culture was something he could get behind.

It became a political issue, though, when two years passed and it became apparent that nothing was stopping the show. Like clockwork, a mess of children were stolen, never to be seen (except via broadcast) again, and stripped of their lives and dignity over the airwaves. Somehow, he had remained mostly non-partisan with his politics, drawing his talking points from different ideologies in an effort to find out “what works”. And the continuing presence of SotF meant that something was clearly broken.

Thus began “Kick The Bastards Out ‘08”, a personal campaign to advertise for whichever candidates Roland felt would be better equipped to handle or at least identify the country’s unknown attackers. He wasn’t hopeful for his chances at making much of a difference; virtually nothing was known about the enemy, not even their grievances, which most terrorists wore on their sleeves. But he did what he could, spreading the word online and in real life, and discouraging the purchase of SotF merchandise in the meantime, sometimes even picking fights with fans of the show. This hasn’t done anything for his social life, but Roland considers this a worthwhile sacrifice.

While not campaigning against Danya and Danya-enablers, Roland continues to print out the occasional pamphlet, work on the Student Council, and maintain around a B average in grades. In his free time, he reads, his tastes having darkened since seeing Cody and Madelaine in action. His favorite type of story is apocalyptic fiction; he enjoys comparing different visions for the mistake that will destroy humanity, a topic that has been hovering around his mind lately.

For the most part, his family has stuck by him, but at the same time they worry for him. Michael, now an entertainment writer for a local magazine, worries that Roland is overextending himself. Roberta, still a distinguished professor, worries that he’s getting his hopes up. And Lillian, now a skilled gymnast and devout Protestant, worries that her brother is changing for the worse.

As of this writing, Roland is a member of Student Council and the debate team, and considers most of the members of both clubs to be within his circle of trust. He's also been exercising for about a month, and seems pleased with the results thus far.

Advantages: Roland is fairly passionate and clever, yet aloof. He is likely to be active during the game, and he has shown that he can think on his feet. He has a few close friends, whom he would be more likely to ally with than turn against, but the rest of the student body has an ambivalent attitude to him at best, and the feeling’s mutual, meaning they wouldn’t be hard to kill.

Disadvantages: Then again, it wouldn’t be hard for them to kill him, either. Also, Roland’s advantages are entirely mental; while not terribly unhealthy, his athleticism is below average and has lost more than a few fights against more skilled students. His medication is also an issue; should he be deprived of it, his temper could lead to a fatal lapse in judgment. Lastly, his hatred for us makes him likely to avoid playing out of spite.

Designated Number: Male Student No. 081

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Designated Weapon: Tennis Racket

Conclusion: Revenge is a dish best served cold. Too bad this weapon won't help B81 serve anything useful at all.

'The above biography is as written by Solitair. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Solitair

Kills: None

Killed By: Kris Hartmann

Collected Weapons: Tennis Racket (assigned weapon)

Allies: Hui "Sarah" Xu, Örn "Dutchy" Ayers, Brendan Wallace

Enemies: None

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Roland, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Activists and Commie Mutant Traitors

Pre-Game:
 * Debate Exposes Doubt
 * Closing In

V4:
 * False Awakening
 * D-Day
 * Dimer
 * The Long Road Home
 * Make Your Own Kind of Music
 * Bitti Rüya
 * The Ballad of Ackbar

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Roland Hayes. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Roland's another great character who doesn't get as much credit as he deserves. He's also one of the most legitimately good people to be in V4, while still coming off as very human and realistic. Roland cared about SOTF, even before he was kidnapped. He was an involved, concerned citizen, and that didn't change when he was thrown into the game. He stuck with his friends, never taking the lead unless he had to, but always trying to help them keep it together and watching out for the weaker ones. He took care of Dutchy, even when the boy broke down after they were seemingly abandoned by Sarah and Bridget. Roland had a bit of a temper, but he largely kept it in check. He's a character I'd have loved to see last long, but as it is he was still a really positive part of the game and is worth another look. - MurderWeasel